As part of my ongoing effort to improve my diet, we recently bought a colander to steam vegetables. Put it in a pot with some water, cover it, and bam! Steamer.

I've used it to cook broccoli  mainly, but the other day I used it for something unusual - eggs.

Previously I had been boiling them in water with a cap full of vinegar. To make them easier to peel I'd then shock them in ice water. I thought I was being smart doing that, that I was using the best technique - but I'm here to tell you we've all be STUPID.

STUPID!

The best way to cook an egg whole, soft or hard, is to steam it. After about 8-9 minutes of steaming they're just how I like them, solid white, with the yolk just partly done. After 10 minutes they're hard boiled nicely, none of that over done chalky garbage.

But the big revelation is that the shells are ridiculously easy to peel. Apparently, as steam the water can get through the shell. This loosens the shell from the egg, and the moisture then lubes it up when you shell it. F'ing AWESOME. (edit: It still helps greatly to cool and rest the eggs in a bowl of water before peeling. Just tap cold water, no need for ice, for ~10 minutes .)

I used to wonder how they processed all those pre-peeled eggs you can get at the supermarket. They're all perfect! Surely they're not done by hand! Some sort of enzyme or acid eats the shell away perhaps? Nope - they steam those suckers, has to be.

There's some creepy shit in there thar pages.

So. Stuff that is going on.

Good stuff first? Bad stuff first? Stream of conciousness?

Hard to concentrate with music playing. Catchy. Catchy.

Right! Spotify. Got spotify a while back when it was still invite only in the US. Misspelt my name, so I'm stuck with thespoojk.

Found myself using it enough that the ads became annoying, so I got a sub. Works out to about $60 for a year on the normal plan, which feels fair. It's great. Way easier than pirating. Rather awesome to be able to just instantly pull up a playlist of whatever. DMX? It's what you hearin'. Gloria Estefan? Shake your body! Glitch Mob? Bwwwwb zwwwb clap clap.



I've always said my music taste is eclectic, like that made me special. Obviously I'm not the only one. But with Spotify, holy crap, it's like the auditory equivalent of a pregnant woman's weird cravings.  I've got a playlist with Tom Waits and Daft Punk. BANANA and VEGEMITE. Don't judge me 'till you've tried it! A couple of times a day Nadia calls out from across the room "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LISTENING TO?!"

Not Depeche Mode. That's what.

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Video games. Currently have Spec Ops: The Line rented from Gamefly. Playing through it in small doses. It's alright, but some of the scripted events have me dying soon after a load screen over and over until I figure out the exact things I'm expected to do. Getting shot at by a helicopter early on for instance, I stand behind a giant block of cover and instantly die because I stood still. Run through the open in a hail of bullets is okay though, do that.

My nephew got his first PC last year. Replayed Terraria with him. Finally he understands what I mean by 'the combat in Minecraft isn't fun'. He's also having to get used to ... lets say, the responsibilities of owning a PC. Things like updating Java instead of just clicking it away. And making sure you uncheck the box for that stupid toolbar. And incognito browsing. So proud of him.

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On the health front, I've been dealing with various skin problems for a few months. Ever since I moved to the US I've had some skin problem or another, but it looked like I had it beat for a while there. Right now it's a staph infection behind my ear, and an eye infection on the same side, probably staph too. Fuckers.

My dermatologist has me taking baths in bleach. Just a quarter cup in a tub of water of course, but still. Bleach! I felt really crazy the first time, but it's helped.  

Nadia is doing okay enough. It's the usual suspects with her. Her old man isn't doing so good though. In the last... two years? Year? He's had a quadruple bypass, stroke, and now cancer that they caught too late. After the deaths in my family I feel like perhaps I've been hardened to it, but at the same time it's hard to have sympathy for someone who's never looked after their health. He's had diabetes his whole life but never took it seriously, even with his family pleading with him the whole time. He went blind well before I got here because of it. It's like... when a smoker dies of lung cancer. It's tragic when it comes out of nowhere, but when it's a steam roller coming from miles away...

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S'all I guess. Writing this for myself as much as anything. Sometimes I go back and read old journals, and if the gaps are too big it's like I didn't exist at all, eh?



Oh. PS thing. Check out /r/ArtisanVideos.